WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) released the following statement after a shocking report by Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich that Biden-Harris administration officials misrepresented the level of vetting conducted on Afghan national Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi. Released into the United States in September 2021 following the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Tawhedi was arrested earlier this month for plotting an Election Day terrorist attack in Oklahoma.
 
“This report demonstrates, at best, pure incompetence, and at worst, outright deception by the Biden-Harris administration. Americans ought to be enraged, not just by the Biden-Harris administration’s mass-parole of nearly 80,000 Afghans in our country—many of whom were not sufficiently vetted—but also by the administration’s lack of forthrightness. The Biden-Harris administration’s claims about vetting were never truly feasible, particularly at the level needed for the ‘Special Immigrant Visa’ that officials have claimed Tawhedi received. 
 
“If true, these revelations cast into question everything else we have been told by this administration. What other vetting failures are currently at large in our communities, plotting similar evil against Americans? We deserve answers, and a change in policy, before innocent Americans suffer the consequences.”

Background: Per a criminal complaint filed by the Department of Justice, Tawhedi had supposedly entered the country on a Special Immigrant Visa. Heinrich reported on October 16, “Tawhedi was never vetted or approved by the State Department for special immigrant (SIV) status, despite officials from other agencies claiming that he cleared that stringent process. … DHS has repeatedly stated that no red flags were identified at any point in Tawhedi’s vetting, but three sources forcefully disputed DHS’ characterization of the vetting process as ‘thorough.’”

Last week, Chairman Green sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), demanding answers from the Biden-Harris administration on the failures that allowed Tawhedi to roam free for years. 

In May 2024, the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report indicating that DHS has a fragmented process for vetting and identifying derogatory information on Afghan parolees arriving through Operation Allies Welcome, and no plan in place to remove the roughly 77,000 Afghans paroled into the country as part of Operation Allies Welcome. This report followed a September 2022 DHS OIG report that found that DHS “encountered obstacles to screen, vet, and inspect all Afghan evacuees” arriving in the United States following the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

In October 2023, Chairman Green subpoenaed DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for documents and information on the vetting and screening of Afghan evacuees entering the United States since 2021. This subpoena followed months of failure by Secretary Mayorkas to comply with the Committee’s initial May 2023 request. 

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